First Tattoo Tips: What to Do Before, During, and After

Prep ⏱ 7 min read Updated 2026-08-22

Your first tattoo goes well or badly mostly because of decisions you make before you sit down: who you picked, whether you slept, and whether you ate. The session itself is usually less dramatic than people expect. What surprises most first-timers is how ordinary it feels — a long, hot, scratchy stretch of time in a chair while someone concentrates on you.

Here is the whole arc, in the order you will actually encounter it.

Choosing an artist

Pick the artist, not the shop, and pick them for style rather than price. Every tattooer has a lane — traditional, fine-line, blackwork, realism, illustrative — and someone excellent in one lane can be merely competent in another. Look through a portfolio for pieces that resemble what you want, and look specifically at healed photos, not just fresh ones. Fresh work always looks sharp. Healed work is the real test of line quality and saturation.

Other signals worth weighting:

• They ask questions about your idea rather than just saying yes.
• They tell you when your idea will not age well at that size or placement. Good artists push back.
• They have a deposit and booking process rather than pure walk-in chaos.
• Their consultation is a conversation, not a sales pitch.

If someone makes you feel rushed or stupid for asking questions, walk. There is no shortage of tattooers.

Reading a studio’s hygiene

You do not need to be an expert to spot a clean shop. Walk in and look:

• Needles opened in front of you from sealed single-use packaging, every time.
• Gloves changed whenever the artist touches a phone, a drawer, or their face.
• Barrier film wrapped over machines, clip cords, spray bottles, and the chair.
• An autoclave with visible spore-test logs if they reuse any tools.
• Single-use ink caps, poured fresh and discarded after.
• A sharps container in reach of the station.
• A visible license or health department inspection certificate.
• General order. Clean floors, clean bathroom, clean counters. Sloppiness in the visible areas usually means sloppiness in the invisible ones.

You are allowed to ask directly how they sterilize. A professional will answer without any defensiveness.

The day before

• Sleep. This is the highest-leverage thing you can do. Tired people have measurably worse pain tolerance and sit worse.
• No alcohol for 24 hours. It thins the blood, which means more bleeding, more wiping, worse ink saturation, and a longer sitting.
• Skip aspirin and other blood thinners if you can. If you take any medication that affects bleeding or clotting, ask your doctor before changing anything — never stop a prescribed medication on a tattoo blog’s say-so. Just tell your artist so they can plan.
• Hydrate. Well-hydrated skin takes ink more easily. Start the day before, not an hour before.
• Moisturize the area for a few days beforehand, but not on the morning of.
• Do not shave the spot yourself unless your artist asks. They will prep it properly, and razor irritation is easier to work around than razor burn.
• Skip fresh sun exposure. Do not get tattooed over sunburned or recently tanned skin.

The morning of

Eat a real meal. Not a coffee. The most common way a first session goes sideways is a blood sugar crash 90 minutes in, which shows up as lightheadedness, shaking, and sudden nausea. What to eat before getting a tattoo covers timing and what to bring.

Dress for the placement. Think it through: a rib piece means a shirt that opens at the front or a top you can lift, a thigh piece means loose shorts, a back piece means something you can drop the straps on. Wear black or something you do not mind staining, and bring a layer — studios run cold and adrenaline drops make you colder.

Bring ID, your deposit or payment method, water, a snack, headphones, and a phone charger.

About numbing creams: talk to your artist before applying anything. Many studios refuse to work on numbed skin, because it can change how the skin behaves under the needle. If it comes up, know that the FDA has cautioned against over-the-counter lidocaine products above 4%, and against applying any numbing product to large areas of skin or under occlusive wraps, both of which increase absorption. This site does not recommend any numbing brand — the conversation to have is with your artist.

What the session is like

You will talk through the design, then the artist prints or draws a stencil and places it on your skin. Look in the mirror carefully at this stage. Size, angle, and position are all still changeable, and this is your last easy chance. Say something if it is off by an inch. Nobody minds.

Then the outline. The first few seconds are the sharpest sensation of the day and it settles quickly into a hot scratch. Shading feels duller and broader. Expect the pain to fade for the first half hour while adrenaline is up, then arrive honestly. The tattoo pain chart sets expectations by placement.

Practical session etiquette: stay as still as you can, ask for a break rather than fidgeting, say if you feel faint (every artist has seen it), do not micromanage mid-line, and tip if that is customary where you are.

The aftercare handoff

Before you leave, the artist wraps the tattoo — either a traditional bandage or a transparent healing film — and tells you how long to leave it on, how to wash it, and what to put on it. Get this in writing or as a photo of their instruction card. If their advice differs from something you read online, follow your artist. They know what ink and technique they used.

The short version most artists give: leave the wrap on as instructed, wash gently with clean hands and a fragrance-free soap, pat dry, apply a very thin layer of product, and do not pick or scratch. No soaking, no pools, no gym, no sun on fresh ink.

Tattoo healing day by day walks the timeline, and best tattoo aftercare products explains what each product category actually does so you can buy sensibly rather than by hype.

One last thing

Almost nobody regrets a well-chosen first tattoo from a good artist. The regrets cluster around rushing — booking with whoever was available, picking a design that week, or getting talked into a size that does not fit the placement. Take the extra month. The tattoo lasts considerably longer than the wait.

tattoo.tips is not affiliated with any studio, artist, or brand. This guide is informational, not medical advice — see a doctor or your artist for anything that worries you.